Staggered setups on 914s, what have you found? Options

[emerygt350]

Going to need new tires next spring and was thinking about this. I have 16x7 fuchs up front and 16x8s in the back, I think, or are the 8 and 9? I don't know, I just put 225s all around when I bought it. Anyway, since the wheels are staggered I get no benefit from 'rotating' the square setup.

On the track, pre2056, I destroyed my rears yet the fronts look great. The car handles great (as far as I can tell without a comparison to other setups), steering is of course a little heavier due to the 225s but not annoying at all.

Knowing that the 914 has a (1 inch?) difference in width at front vs back....

And mine is also 14 inches wider than stock but maintains the width difference front and back.

Is their anything to be gained going down to a 205 or something up front beyond lighter steering? I would assume understeer would follow. Can't go any wider in back. The difference in wear made me wonder whether I needed 225 up front. There were two of us in the car on the track and I am a pretty big guy.

[Justinp71]

I had problems with snap oversteer with 205s all the way around. Haven’t had that since I went 225s in the rear.

[stownsen914]

A 914 will be happier on track with more tire on the back. As evidenced by the faster wear you saw. I'm running much wider tires than you - 10.5" in the front and 12" in the back. I still wear out the rears 2x the fronts.

At the end of the day, a key point is whether the car is balanced and handling well. More tire in the back (or less in front) will balance tire wear. You might need to adjust swaybar balance if you decide to switch to a staggered setup.

I don't think I saw what tires you're using? 2.5 hrs is fast to wear out tires.